NEW The Two Child Policy

For those are who not familiar with the One Child Policy, it was a Chinese policy implemented in 1979 to 2015 in an attempt to control the overwhelming population growth when there were few resources. The goal was attained, but the aftermath was catastrophic and irreversible. The consequences were forced abortions based on sex, forced sterilization, infanticide, a rising labour shortage, stigma against childless parents, unbalanced gender ratio, ghost children also known as children who do not have any proper documentation of being born therefore they do not exist, and family pain. Males were preferred over females because they would carry on the family name and the husband's wife would take care of his parents while her parents would have no one to take care of them. Limited elder care is a large issue for China and many cannot afford it, hence why parents were desperate for boys, leaving hundreds of thousands of abandoned baby girls.

While my own story and many adoptees' lives started as traumatic, the new generation being born into the Two Child Policy have some hope. The Chinese government has loosened the policy and have begun allowing two children to families, not just one. The new children don't have to worry about being abandoned and hoping to be adopted. They won't have to wonder who they could have been if only their family was able to take care of them or who wanted to keep them regardless of their sex. They don't have to try to think if their family loves them. They won't ever experience looking into a mirror and wondering what characteristics their birth parents share with them. They won't have to think about if they have a birth sibling or if a disease runs in the family that they should be aware of. They won't have questions that will probably never be answered.

I am happy for them. I am happy that the Chinese government has seen what a catastrophe their human experiment was and are trying to fix it. I am happy that the new children do not have to live in a world where your neighbour is dragged out of her house and thrown in a car to have a forced abortion. They don't have to worry about having a ghost sibling that lives with them, but they can't say their name in public or go out with them because in the governments' eyes they don't exist and will never be a real person. They have more freedom in China and are deemed as valuable no matter what sex they are. There is hope for this new generation and I am wishing them the best.